Munson, Robert

Robert S. Munson, Jr., Ph.D.

Professor
Department of Pediatrics

Joint Appointment
Department of Molecular Virology, Immunology and Medical Genetics and Department of Microbiology

Research Interests:
Bacterial Pathogenesis and Genomics.

Research Summary:
Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae is an important cause of otitis media in children, and a major cause of lower respiratory disease in children in the developing world. The organism is also associated with exacerbations of chronic bronchitis, and pneumonia in elderly and immunocompromised patients.  Haemophilus ducreyi is the causative agent of chancroid, a sexually transmitted disease. Chancroid ulcers facilitate the transmission of HIV.

My laboratory is employing a number of genetic and immunological approaches in order to assess the role of outer membrane proteins, toxins and adhesins in the pathogenesis of Haemophilus disease.

My laboratory is also interested in bacterial genomics as well as global regulation of expression of virulence determinants.  Recently, we completed the sequence of the genomes of H. influenzae 86-028NP and H. ducreyi strain 35000HP.

Selected Publications:
Post DMB, Mungur R, Gibson BW, and Munson RS Jr., Identification of a novel sialic acid transporter in Haemophilus ducreyi. Infect Immun 2005;73(10):6727-6735.

Harrison A, Dyer DW, Gillispy A, Ray WC, Mungur R, Carson MB, Zhong H, Gipson J, Gipson M, Johnson LS, Lewis L, Bakaletz LO  and Munson RS Jr., Genomic sequence of an otitis media isolate of nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae: Comparative study with H. influenzae serotype D, strain KW20. J. Bacteriol 2005;187(13)4627-4636.

Bakaletz LO, Baker BD, Jurcisek JA, Harrison A, Novotny LA, Bookwalter JE, Mungur R and Munson RS Jr., Demonstration of Type IV pilus expression and a twitching phenotype by Haemophilus influenzae. Infect Immun. 2005;73(3):1635-43.

Mason KM, Munson RS Jr. and Bakaletz LO, A mutation in the sap operon attenuates survival of nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae in a chinchilla model of otitis media. Infect Immun. 2005; 73(1): 599-608.

Mason KM, Munson RS Jr. and Bakaletz LO, Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae gene expression induced in vivo in a chinchilla model of otitis media.  Infect Immun 2003,71(6):3454-3462.